The United States and Japan will step up their defence cooperation to deal with the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea as tensions in East Asia remain high, officials from the two allies said on Thursday.

Morrison and Indon counterpart not talking

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has not spoken to his Indonesian counterpart for several weeks as a result of the spy scandal engulfing diplomatic relations between both countries.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will lead a high-level delegation to Jakarta on Thursday for talks aimed at mending relations that have soured in the wake of revelations Australian spies had targeted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his inner circle.

The visit comes more than two weeks since Indonesia suspended military, intelligence gathering and people-smuggling cooperation after it emerged last month that Australian spies attempted to tap the Indonesian president's mobile phone, as well as that of his wife and other close political allies, in 2009.

Mr Morrison said there was a "leader-to-leader" dialogue under way as well as discussions between foreign ministers.

"My last discussion with Minister Syamsudin was when I was in Indonesia some weeks ago," Mr Morrison told ABC TV on Wednesday.

He claimed that asylum seeker numbers had not increased in November despite the spy row.

"We had 207 turn up ... by boat in the month of November, during what has been this difficult and tense time," he said.